COVID-19 UPDATE | JANUARY 15, 2021

Friends and Family of Santa Marta,

We are thrilled to share that the day we have all been waiting for after an unpredictable 10 months is finally here. Our community has officially confirmed a date for our first round of COVID-19 immunizations, which will be administered by CVS. Residents in assisted living, memory support and skilled nursing, as well as Santa Marta associates, will receive their first doses on Monday, January 18. Second doses will be provided three weeks thereafter.

This initial round of vaccinations does not include independent living residents. According to McKnight’s, a respected senior living industry publication, the status of vaccinations for independent living residents was recently addressed by Derek Darling, vice president of strategy and internal operations for Omnicare, a CVS subsidiary that specializes in senior living.

Darling stated, “At this point, we are essentially standing by the original guidance — in a CCRC or mixed-setting campus, we’re certainly happy to vaccinate those staff members, presuming they are counted in our pre-clinic verifications. At this time, we are not able to get to independent living patients, given a lot of the other operational considerations.”

CVS’ approach corresponds with the Johnson County Department of Health & Environment vaccine distribution timeline. Guidelines from the CDC and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment indicate that independent living residents will be immunized during the second phase of the vaccine rollout.  We are working with these health authorities to determine exact dates and will update you as soon as more information is available.

As previously announced, we conducted two rounds of testing for all healthcare residents this week – one rapid test and one lab test for each individual. Only one new positive case of COVID-19 was found, bringing the total number of resident cases to 20 after some recent recoveries. There are still no positive cases among residents in independent living and memory support.

We also conducted our twice weekly testing for all healthcare team members and identified five new positive cases. After some recent recoveries, there are currently 19 positive cases in total among Santa Marta staff, all of whom are recovering at home.

All impacted residents and team members are in our prayers and we wish them a speedy recovery.

Our visitation policies remain unchanged. Indoor visitations with safety precautions continue in independent living while outdoor visitation for residents in our health center remains temporarily suspended. Window visits, video calls and using social media are the safest ways to stay connected with your loved ones.

Feel free to contact our leadership team at updates@www.santamartaretirement.com with any questions. As usual, weekly updates will also be shared on our website and Facebook page.

Thank you and God bless,

Chet Surmaczewicz

Executive Director